Situated at the intersection of Route 48 and Ackerly Pond Lane in Southold, there’s nothing garden-variety about Cifarellis Nursery. Its unique plants and stunning landscape pieces catch the eye from afar, tempting motorists to pull over and stay awhile — perhaps for a stroll through the grounds for an exercise in inspiration.
Run by husband-and-wife Lisa and David Cifarelli, the business comprises cozy, welcoming greenhouses and a boutique filled with hard-to-find plants and garden accessories. There’s also an intriguing outdoor space stocked with landscape objects designed by David, like fire pits, planters, sculptures, firewood racks and chimineas.
Judging by the quality and beauty of the handcrafted items, you’d think the Cifarellis had been doing this type of work for decades. But the couple’s toe-dip into the world of landscapes started as an after-hours hobby — one that was destined to outgrow David’s backyard tinkering.
Photo Credit: Doung Young
HOMEGROWN INITIATIVE
David and Lisa met when they both attended Mattituck High School in the 1980s. Young and enterprising, David started Crystal Clear Window Cleaning in 1989. The couple married and Lisa joined the business after earning an accounting degree at Long Island University.
As the Cifarellis’ window-cleaning operation grew so did their family, with daughter Mickala and sons Drew and Dylan joining the clan’s home in Laurel. In his spare time, David began building planters, fire rings, architectural fences and furniture using original designs, often working with repurposed materials. Completely self-taught with no formal training, he launched an outdoor living design venture in 2015, working with stone, steel, wood and reclaimed materials to create functional landscape art.
In 2021, the five-acre former Doroski’s Nursery in Southold went on the market, prompting David to reassess his design operation. “David has always had a passion developing and creating hardscape items and landscape designs,” Lisa says. “When he saw the Southold property for sale, it opened up the opportunity to expand what he was currently doing.” The couple bought the property and opened in May 2022.
FABRICATING FOR FUNCTION AND FORM
Onsite in Southold, in-house welders and fabricators build David’s unique hardscape items in a metal fabricating shop housed in a historic barn.
David likes to work with corten steel (also called weathering steel), a highly strong alloy often used for bridges that doesn’t need to be painted because it forms a layer of rust that protects the interior from corrosion. Its rusted-metal aesthetic and strength are both reasons David uses it in his hardscape designs, keeping an eye toward how each piece will settle into a space and age to become part of any landscape.
“You see the corten steel worked into a lot of the industrial [look] these days,” says nursery employee Robbie Elliston, the Cifarellis’ nephew, describing the warehouse-inspired aesthetic lately found in breweries and restaurants. “But I think bringing it outdoors makes it look a little more natural at the same time because it blends in kind of nicely.”
Locals who frequent cold-weather events have probably seen David’s fire rings and large-scale chimineas in operation at the Festival of Trees and WinterFest in Southold and on the beach at the North Fork Polar Bear Plunge in Mattituck as participants try to stay toasty. “We burn them every year; usually it’s pretty popular because people want to come get warm,” Elliston says.
While hardscape items are customizable, a great many distinctive steel pieces of all sizes are available at the nursery’s property, including lamps, tables, fire pits and fireplaces, planters, pergolas, umbrellas and statues. The roomy doghouses David makes with metal and wood accents are especially stylish pieces of art in their own right.
Photo Credit: Doung Young
INSPIRING GREENHOUSES AND GROUNDS
Both greenhouses at Cifarelli’s are magical. The first is filled with enormous hanging ferns and string of pearl plants and tropical succulents, along with cacti, snake plants, carnivorous pitcher plants and orchids — a great source for anyone on the hunt for new houseplants.
The other, slightly cooler greenhouse, is adorned with a roaring wood stove and a collection of antique watering cans. It’s similarly loaded with small trees and shrubs — kumquat and citrus trees, olive trees, an Australian tree fern and the like. Both greenhouses were left by the Doroskis and refurbished a few years ago.
“We like to try to find unique plants that may not be found elsewhere,” Lisa notes. “We order from vendors across the U.S. for items that cannot be sourced locally.” Like her husband, Lisa is largely self-taught when it comes to horticulture and has learned a great deal on the job.
Many visitors come to wander the greenhouses and grounds for ideas to update their own spaces. The property has several paths to roam that lead to well-curated indoor and outdoor nooks.
“[We] love the customers that say they could walk around for hours,” says Lisa. “We are growing and expanding every year and there is always something new that David is building or creating on the property.”
Photo Credit: Doung Young
STOCKING THE UNIQUE AND UNUSUAL
Although Lisa devotes the majority of her time to running Crystal Clear, she finds ways to curate and stock all the non-plant items in the garden boutique. While running two businesses is undoubtedly challenging, she says “it actually has worked out quite seamlessly.”
Lisa looks for distinctive, high-quality items to sell at the boutique. “We find vendors from attending trade shows,” she says. “We like to see all the products in person before we buy … honestly, mostly items that we would want. We look for unique pieces that you would not see elsewhere.”
For the shop’s upcoming season, the couple has imported a number of original pieces from Indonesia. They also carry a full array of tools, gifts, home décor, planters, faux flowers and terrariums. Elliston notes that the nursery has a huge selection of outdoor planters to hold their unique greenery, perhaps the largest on the East End.
All three of the Cifarelli kids have been known to lend a hand at the garden center, too. “Mickala has helped with social media and displays and Drew and Dylan have both worked customer service,” their mother says.
When fall and winter holidays roll around, Cifarelli’s stocks Thanksgiving and Christmas cacti, dried flower wreaths and centerpieces, specialty varieties of poinsettias, holiday plants like amaryllis, paperwhites and cyclamen, and Christmas trees.
No matter the time of year, though, Cifarelli’s is open for customers who are on the hunt for new plants, landscape pieces, gifts or inspiration. For those looking to update their outdoor space, David recommends “adding a water feature or a new piece of hardscape … or updating or adding a few specimen plants.” His favorite way to enjoy time outdoors, however, is with a fire pit area: “I think everyone should be burning a fire and enjoying time with friends and family fireside.”
Cifarelli’s Nursery, 3405 Ackerly Pond Lane, Southold, 631-765-8654, Instagram @cifarellisnursery
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